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Facebook debuts video ad revenue sharing programme

Facebook, now claiming 4 billion video views per day, is introducing a revenue sharing scheme for video creators. The company will match YouTube’s 45/55 revenue split and hopes to see higher quality videos and more video ads being shown in News Feeds.

Not only is Facebook matching YouTube’s revenue sharing model, but the company is also taking another leaf from the YouTube playbook – “suggested videos”. Facebook is running a small-scale “suggested videos” test with in-line autoplay ads being shown between video clips from advertisers such as Fox Sports, the NBA, Hearst, amongst others. Testing is soon to include a larger user base, and will eventually be expanded to Android and the Web (it is currently limited to the Facebook iPhone app).

In addition, Facebook video advertisers now have the option of being charged per video view or of being charged only where 10 seconds or more of the video ad have been viewed.

In a related announcement, Facebook is also tweaking its algorithm so that more videos appear on News Feeds. Videos will be shown in News Feeds based on positive user interactions (such as unmuting and expanding to full screen) rather than clip popularity (likes, views and shares).

Why should you care?

Advertisers already using YouTube video ads are likely to be interested once these changes see general release. That said, Facebook cannot match YouTube’s flexibility as to where ads can be shown, and YouTube only charges once ads have been viewed.

The option to pay only when autoplay videos have played for 10 seconds or more goes someway towards addressing advertiser concerns, but we suspect that for many it won’t be enough.

Jeremy and Mark are two of the partners behind SureFire Search. Despite their deceptively youthful appearances, both have worked in search marketing for many years. To put that in context, Google didn't even exist when Jeremy started.